Now, you could stop reading your meter here, because you know, at a
very general level, that the water meter reading is 4,367,900 gallons.
And, to simplify, many landlords will only read the Register (to the
nearest 100 gallons) because typically, consumption under 100 gallons
isn’t that expensive.

2. However, since you’re probably NOT consuming by
the millions of gallons (or haven’t got there yet), you’ll most likely
focus on just the last few numbers on the Register, depending on your
rate of consumption. In this example, those last few numbers are — 79 —Translation: 7,900 U.S. Gallons.

The Dials: The Nitty-Gritty, Bottom Line Numbers3. Moving clockwise from the Register, read each Dial
number, and tack that number on, after the last few numbers (79) on the
Register. In this example, it’s — 1 —Translation: 10 U.S. Gallons, so your water meter reading is now at: 7,910 U.S. Gallons.

4. Keep moving clockwise and tacking on the next number. Notice the rule-of-thumb of
rounding down (for example, if the red dial is on 5-1/2, round down to
5). In this example, the next dial number to tack on is — 5 —Translation: 5 U.S. gallons, so your water meter reading is now at: 7,915 U.S. Gallons.

5. If you’re reading this far, you’re into a super
accurate water meter reading, down to the sub-gallon! Note the Decimal
Point, which helps you to keep track of where those numbers need to go.
So, in this example, continuing to move clockwise, the last dial number
is — 0 —Translation: (Decimal Point) .0 U.S. Gallon, so your water meter reading is now at:
7,915.0 U.S. Gallons, which gives you your TOTAL of: 4,367,915.0 U.S. Gallons.

So What’s My Rate of Consumption? The Final Tip: Simple Subtraction
To get your rate of water consumption between water meter readings: Take
your previous water meter reading, and subtract it from your most
current water meter reading.